Poem Pals
by Exotos135
Summary: Continuation of the "Lucy and Clyde" story from "Loud Pairings." Lucy and Clyde decide to hang out.
1. Cowbell

In the middle of the Royal Woods park, Clyde sat on a bench and relaxed as he tried to think of how to improve his poem to Lori. "Okay, so Linc said that this poem might not fit her...but what part doesn't fit?"

"Hello, Clyde."

One heart-attack-like scare later, Clyde turned around and saw Lucy was standing close to him. "Oh, hi Lucy, what are you doing here?" Clyde said as Lucy sat next to him.

"We agreed to meet later, remember?" the emo took out from her pockets a poem. "Anyway, I got a special little..."poem" here, and I was wondering if you could help me with it."

"Wait, I thought you went to Lincoln whenever you had poem problems?" Clyde pointed out.

"I do and did, but he told me it was fine the way it is," a short pause later, Lucy added, "So, I decided to do something different for once and not take his word for it. I want your opinion."

"Okay then, let's hear it."

Glad that she had an audience with the black kid, Lucy took a deep breath before she read her "poem" out loud:

 _I enter the room, and there he is,_

 _My brother's friend, my newest pal._

 _At first I think, I should return later,_

 _But after hearing his poetry skills, I'm intrigued._

 _I want to seen him again._

 _I want to discover how he's so good._

 _I'm but an apprentice, and I've been practicing._

 _But his only poem, has brought me into perspective: I got a lot to learn from him._

"Wow, you certainly put some effort into it," Clyde interrupted, causing Lucy to smile. "I like it. Though I'm wondering who you're talking about."

The next part most certainly answered his question:

 _And if I want to make this work._

 _I must prove to him I'm worthy of his teachings._

 _Of his excellence._

 _Of his... friendship._

 _His name is..._

 _McBride, Clyde McBride._

And so, Clyde, putting the pieces together, gave Lucy a shocked look while the girl gave him a smile. "Well, if we're going to hang out more often like this... I wouldn't mind giving it a shot," Clyde said, scratching the back of his head. "But I have to let you know my heart belongs to Lori and nobody else."

"Huh, Lori's so heartless she needs to own another person's heart," Lucy scoffed. "But I understand what you mean."

And Clyde soon added, "Also, we need to work on that bad habit of yours."

"...My what now?" a dumbfounded Lucy asked.

Clyde pinched the bridge of his nose. "Whenever you pop out of nowhere and scare people!"

"I don't pop out of nowhere, people just don't see me coming," Lucy answered with utmost honesty.

"It's the same thing, and we need to fix it!" then, one quick look at the scenery later, the boy got an idea. "And I think I might know just how to do that!"

Clyde grabbed Lucy's hand and the duo went to a nearby carnival simply named "Blarney's Irish Luck-a-Thon," and wouldn't you know, Blarney was the first carnival worker the duo met.

"Greetings, lad and lass, I'm Blarney! Blarney the Dinosaur!" the dinosaur said with utmost, potentially genuine excitement. "And welcome to me carnival of luck! Built by leprechauns and bathed in their greed, this magical place will let you achieve all of your dreams, in exchange for a little cash, of course!"

And then the dinosaur said as quickly and quietly as possible, "Warning: Blarney enterprises is not responsible for any wasteful spending you may or may not do. If you do end up wasting a lot of money in a Blarney-related product, you lose the right to complain."

"Are you sure you'll be able to get what we're looking for here?" Lucy asked Clyde, catching his attention. "Come to think of it, do you really think we'll find a cowbell here?"

Clyde shrugged. "Hey, it's a luck-themed carnival, we're bound to have some luck here."

So the duo went deeper into the carnival and oh man, Blarney wasn't kidding when he said they'd get what they wanted for a bit of cash. Prices ranged from 5 to 25 dollars per game, and while that may not sound like much to you, it was a bit overwhelming for an 8 and 10-year-old.

Nevertheless, Clyde did manage to find a game that was reasonably priced: A crane game that only wanted 2 dollars per play.

"Finally, a game we can play!" Clyde remarked in relief. "What do you think, Lucy?"

Lucy's answer was...melodramatic: "Crane games are the bane of existence, the greatest mistake ever done by game designers, and one of the worst kind of ga-"

"Okay, I get it, you don't like this kind of game," Clyde took out a couple of dollars and inserted them in the machine. "I'll play it instead."

And so, the boy played the crane game once...and lost.

He played it again...same result.

This continued for a couple more plays until Clyde has played the game 6 times...and lost each and every time. "Clyde, you don't have to torture yourself for me, let's look for another game," Lucy said, sounding genuinely worried...in her own emo-tional way of course.

"No, it's okay, I'm sure seventh time's the charm," Clyde took a look at his last couple of dollars. "And I'm also certain Blarney's a freaking cheapskate."

The boy inserted the dollars and, without warning, bells rang and confetti rained from the skies as Blarney popped out of nowhere and brought with him a large pot of gold. "Congratulations, me boy! You've played this game a total of seven times!" the dinosaur enthusiastically shouted. "Now you may take some of me gold back home!"

"Actually, I just want a cowbell, nothing more," Clyde clarified, with Lucy nodding in agreement.

"Oh...that's disappointing," the dinosaur kicked the pot of gold away and took out a cowbell out of his hat. "But anyhow, here's your cowbell, boy!"

Clyde took the cowbell and he and Lucy left the carnival while the dinosaur waved goodbye. Shortly afterwards, Lucy put on the cowbell and moved around to see if it worked. The pleasent sounds it made was enough to get her to smile. "Now people will know when you come in without you scaring them in the process!" Clyde proudly said.

"Thanks, Clyde," the emo said with a honest smile. "I'll treasure this bell for days to come..."

And so, one short silent stare exchange later, the duo bid farewell and went their separate ways. As she left, though, Lucy took a quick glance at Clyde, who had his arms folded behind his head. She smiled at the sight, then promptly continued to leave.


	2. Stealth

Back at the Loud House, the...well, loud noises going all around allowed Lucy to enter her house without catching unwanted attention. Once she closed the door and started to move, however, her cowbell's noise somehow made all the surrounding noise end, forcing her to hide behind the couch.

"Did you hear that?" asked a voice sounding similar to Lana's.

"Yeah, it sound, like, like a cowbell!" said a voice that no doubt belonged to Leni.

"Leni, you can't just say "like" twice and expect nobody to bat an eye," said an authoritarian voice. This was definitely Lori's voice.

"I'm sorry, Lori, It's a tic I, like, have no control over," Leni replied.

"Then learn how to do that!" Lori ordered.

Lucy quickly ran to a wall, and her cowbell made noise once more.

"There it goes again!" Leni exclaimed.

"Did anybody brought a cow here without telling me first?" Lori growled. "Lana?"

"Don't look at me, I'm stuffed with pets already!" Lana stated.

"Don't look at me either, I have no business with any sort of cows," said a voice like Luna's.

The emo quickly went upstairs, and her cowbell's sounds luckily grew more silent as she got up. By the time she was upstairs, no matter how much noise she made, her sisters couldn't hear her.

"Oh, I think I heard that bell grow quieter and quieter until it left the building!" Leni remarked.

"Kinda like Luan's audience," Lori said.

With the ensuing laughter riot, Lucy took the chance to go straight to her and Lynn's bedroom...only to see Lynn was there as well. Unbelievable!

"Hey sis!" Lynn cheerfully greeted, right before noticing the emo's cowbell. "Hey, what's that you got there?"

Lucy hastily blocked her bell from view and remained silent. "Don't try to hide what you got on your neck now, Lucy, I clearly saw something in there," Lynn approached the emo and fought to get her to reveal her neck. "Now tell me, what is it!"

Eventually, Lucy caved in and revealed the cowbell, which completely shocked the sports fanatic. "A cowbell?!" however, she soon got an idea. "Wait a minute... you stole it from a cow, didn't you?"

Lucy was dumbfounded by her sister's suggestion. "Uh...yes?"

"You did something to a cow and then stole her bell, without telling me about it!?" Lynn growled.

"Uh, that's 'cause, I kind of lied," Lynn folded her arms. "I got it in a Blarney-themed carnival-"

"What?!" the shrill voice no doubt belong to Lola, who got Lucy's attention in an instant. "You went to a Blarney-theme carnival, without telling me about it!?"

And in that moment, Lincoln arrived. "Well, you see, I already went with somebody: Linc's friend, Clyde-"

"You had a date with my best friend, without telling me about it!?" Linc hissed.

Lucy slapped her face in frustration... and then a voice said "Let's all calm down" with a notable lisp, causing everybody but Lucy to freak out. The voice belonged to Lisa, who went inside soon afterwards.

"Lisa, what are you doing here?" Lynn asked.

"I heard noises coming from this room, and I simply knew it had to be something between you and Lucy," the little genius explained as she approached the emo girl. "And while I can see why the commotion happened, and I want to make it clear I'm not picking any sides, we probably should hear Lucy's side of the story first."

Having the attention of her siblings, Lucy took a deep breath before telling what happened. Or at least, a simplified version of what happened: "I went to the park, met with Clyde, showed him a poem-"

"Stop right there," Lynn ordered, and Lucy obliged. "Can we see this poem?"

After a couple seconds in silence, Lucy shook her head, causing Lynn to fight with her while the rest of the siblings watched, though Linc at least tried to stop the fight before eventually being brought into it as well. Once the fight finished, Lynn reunited with Lisa and Lola and read the poem with them while Lucy laid her head on the ground, no doubt too embarrassed to look at them.

And Lola and Lynn's reaction soon showed she had reasons to lay her head down: They giggled to each other until they pointed at the girl in question and shouted "You got a crush on Clyde!" mockingly. They then held hands and danced all around Linc and Lucy while singing "Lucy and Clyde, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" in derision, followed by laughter that made Lucy cling to Linc for comfort.

This was more than enough to bring Lori into the room, instantly causing the mockery to come to an end. "I sensed some mockery happening without I being invited!" she stated. "What's going on?"

Lynn and Lola approached the teenager and handed her the poem. "Lucy wrote a poem to Clyde, you should totally read it!" Lola said, with Lynn nodding in agreement.

Lori crumbled the poem and threw it away, shocking the sports fan and pageant diva. "I'll read that poetic nonsense later, what matters right now is that you decided to mock one of your sisters without inviting me, so you need to punished," Lori then forced Lynn and Lola to look at Lucy, who Linc helped get up. "First of all, apologize to Lucy."

After exchanging "are you serious?" looks to each other, the pair said "sorry" in a deadpan tone that rivaled Lucy's.

This soon got on Lori's nerves. "Like you mean it!"

"Sorry!" they yelled in fear.

Lucy nodded and then Lori turned the duo around to look at her. "Now, before we get to the real punishment, which of you started the mockery?"

"Um, I think I did?" Lynn answered.

Then, Lori handed Lynn the most disturbing book imaginable: A book in the "Princess Pony" series. Oh no!

"You're going to read that book, start to finish, to Lucy," Lori explained.

"What?! But Linc's the one who likes this nonsense, not Lucy!" Lynn whined.

"If Linc can stomach the poems Lucy spits out daily, then she can certainly stomach the garbage _he_ likes," Lori then pushed Lynn to the emo, who gladly-thuogh subtly-grabbed her and waited for the reading with anticipation. "Now get to it!"

"What about me?" Lola asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"You, little missy, are going to go back to your room, write a poem about how you're sorry to mess with Lucy and how she's cute and all that in the eyes of those who matter: Linc and Clyde," the teenager explained, no doubt catching Linc's attention. "And if you can't make a poem, you will write a note or letter instead. Have I been clear? Good, now go write it!"

But Lola refused. "You can't tell me what to do!"

"I'm 11 years older than you, which means I can tell you what to do, which means you're going back to your room to write Lucy a poem right now!" the teenager ordered.

Lola stood her ground. "Don't make me angry, Lori, you won't like me when I'm angry!"

And suddenly, Lori grabbed Lola and lifted her.

"News flash," an intense pain ran through Lola's body as her sister sneaked her hand into the back of her dress, then grabbed and pulled her underwear up until past the point it should have snapped. The teenager finished with a "I don't like you in general!" before releasing the underwear, causing it to end up in Lola's head like a helmet. "Now get out before I take you out Cliff the Cat style!"

And so, as Lisa escaped to avoid a potential fate, Lori threw Lola through the door and watched her bounce off the wall and land back at the room's entrance. "Fine, you won this round, Lori," Lola stated as she got up and dusted herself. "But this is not the last you'll hear from-"

Lori took out a water sprayer. "Okay, you asked for it."

And so Lola was sprayed with water until, acting like a cat and all, ran away and left the room. With the sisters out, Lori gave Lincoln a glare...then promptly shrugged and said "Stay here if you want" before leaving and closing the door.

Lori approached the poem she threw away and then opened it up and read it to herself. "Geez, are they really sure she's talking about Clyde?" she said in disbelief.

However, it wasn't long before Lori got an idea. A horrible, terrible idea.

"Hmm... I think I know how to make this work..."

The teenager took out her phone and marked a contact that, to this day, still left her baffled as to how she got it or why she hasn't gotten rid of it. "Hello, Clyde?" she greeted.

Clyde was naturally perplexed. "L-L-Lori?! W-Why are you calling me?"

"I got an idea for a date with you and a... pretty girl, and I'd like to discuss the details with you..."


	3. Date

Sunset overtook the scenery as, inside Jean-Juan's French-Mex Buffet, Clyde-dressed in a tuxedo-sat down at a table and waited for his date to come. Not long afterwards, Lori, peeking from the bushes, watched as Lucy-wearing a white dress-walked into the restaurant and sat on the same table as Clyde.

"Hi Lucy, how are you doing?" Clyde asked, slightly unnerved by the emo's sudden arrival. When she didn't answer, he added, "Okay, so, I'm going to ask that you...leave, no offense, but I'm waiting for someone."

"Um... _I'm_ that someone," Lucy shyly clarified.

Lori flashed a smirk as Clyde processed what he was just told. "Wait... I'm not going to date Lori?" he asked, and Lucy sadly nodded. "S-She called me and told me I was going to date a special girl."

"Yeah, she was talking about me," Lucy clarified once more. "I didn't want to go on the date at first, but Lori...convinced me in her own way."

Clyde's curiosity was peaked. "How?"

"She threatened to glue a cowboy hat and cow ears to my head and call me "Lucy the Cowgirl" for the rest of summer if I didn't accept," a long silence followed. "Something tells me the cowbell gave her that idea."

"Well, I'm sorry it caused you that much trouble," Clyde responded, scratching the back of his head. "Speaking of the cowbell, has anybody else seen it?"

"They did eventually, but they took it mostly well," and then Lucy's ear rang, causing the emo to flinch.

"Okay, Lucy, Lori here," Lori said through the earpiece. "Now try to begin with some small talk, something simple to get things going."

Lucy nodded and immediately spoke, "So, how are your poems doing?"

"Um, they're okay, I haven't really paid much attention to them lately," Clyde answered, avoiding eye contact. "I'm kind of stuck on the poem for Lori, though. In fact, I'm kind of thinking about throwing it away."

Lucy paid attention to her earpiece and heard Lori's suggestion. "...Ask him why," so she looked at the boy and did just that. "Why do you want to throw it away?"

"I just get the feeling it's... shallow," he answered, causing Lori to flinch and fall silent as a shadow loomed behind her. "I mean, you've taught me that I can't judge a book by its cover: At first I thought you were a weird, kinda creepy girls... and you still are, but I can also see that there's more to you than meets the eye, and I probably shouldn't expect how you look on the outside tell me how you act in general."

As Lucy got a smile, Clyde shyly added, "Also, you look pretty good in that dress."

And suddenly, the shadow revealed herself to be Lola and attacked Lori, snatching her earpiece and throwing it away as the teenager retaliated. "What the heck are you doing here!?" Lori hissed as she started to overpower the kid.

"You made the mistake of making me angry, Lori!" the pageant diva answered. "And now you're going pay for-"

Without warning, the teenager overpowered the girl, pinned her to the ground and tightly grabbed her arms. "Now listen here, you spoiled little pageant baby!" the teenager hissed, causing Lola to visibly flinch. "I've been trying my hardest to get Linc's little nerd friend out of my butt for years, and now you come in trying to stop my plan!"

"I told you that you weren't going to like me when I got angry!" Lola retorted, trying to stand her ground. "You ruined my underwear with that wedgie, and now I'll ruin your plan by making Lucy convince Clyde to continue crushing on you!"

"Come on, Lori, I need you to tell me what to do," Lucy said through the earpiece. "You got me in this situation, you should at least help me get through it as well."

Lola kicked Lori's stomach and immediately rolled away, grabbing the earpiece. "Alright, now this is what I want you to do, tell Clyde to continue crushing on me and not you!"

"...Lola, what are you doing here?" Lucy flatly asked.

"Dang it, I forgot to do my Lori impression!" so the pageant baby took a deep breath and spoke again... in what was quite possibly the most inaccurate imitation of Lori ever. "Listen, Lucy, change of plans: tell Clyde to crush on me."

"...I can still tell it's you, Lola," the emo stated. "And now I'll ask again, what are you doing here?"

Just as Lola tried to justify her appearance, Lori tackled her and the duo fought, eventually shattering the earpiece. Getting no signal, Lucy took off the machine and told Clyde, "Listen, there's something I need to tell you-"

"I'm all ears," he replied.

The emo took a deep breath. "Lori set this up so you'd forget about your crush on her and get a crush... on me," Clyde's eyes widdened at the revelation. "She specifically wanted us to be together so you would leave her alone."

Clyde was quick to point out a hole in the plan: "Did she really need to do all of this to get that message across?"

"We Louds have a bad habit of making things more complicated than they need to be," Lucy answered. "Sigh, I'm sorry this happened, Clyde."

"It's okay, I'm used to stuff like this," and soon enough, the boy got an idea. "Hey, when there's less "convoluted-date-scenario" business going on, would you like to hang out again sometime?"

Lucy smiled and nodded. "I know a place we can hang out: lots of poetists go there, you'll probably learn a thing or two about poetry."

"...How about you show me that place now?" Clyde suggested.

Lucy and Clyde wrapped their arms around each other and left the restaurant as Lori and Lola came out of hiding just in time to see the scene. They instantly stopped fighting and focused on the baffling event, "Should we do something about that?" Lola asked.

Seeing how the duo were legitimately happy, Lori smirked and slapped the pageant diva. "Maybe, after I beat you up!" she stated.

And so the duo continued to fight, while Lucy and Clyde walked to the place, with wide smiles and a sense of satisfaction.


End file.
